6.  The applicant was born in 1973. He originates from Baghdad.
7.  The applicant arrived in Sweden on 12 December 2007 and applied for asylum the following day. In support of his application, he submitted in essence the following. He is a Christian academic who was employed at a university in Baghdad. In April 2006 he had begun working for a committee which had been established to develop research methods at the university. The committee had soon been accused of cooperating with Americans. On 20 June 2006 the applicant had written a letter to the Minister of Education, accusing a university colleague of corruption and of counteracting the work of the committee. The colleague, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), had found out about the accusations and had threatened the applicant, saying that bad things would happen to him. On 27 June 2006 armed men had attempted to kidnap the applicant’s daughter. Her mother had called the police and, after some shooting, the daughter had been released. On 30 June 2006 the applicant had received a letter, in which he and his family had been called Christian traitors and it had been stated that they would be killed if the applicant did not quit his job. On 8 July 2006 the applicant had reported the incidents to the police and the family had moved in with relatives. Thereafter, the applicant had found out that the head of the committee had been kidnapped and killed on 16 July 2006 and that he, as well as the other committee members, had previously received threatening letters saying that he deserved to die. The work of the committee had consequently ended and on 3 October 2006 the applicant had fled with his family to Syria. On 15 January 2008 the applicant’s parents, who lived in Baghdad, had been shot at and the father had been kidnapped and tortured until he had told the kidnappers the whereabouts of the applicant. In October and December 2008, the applicant had received threatening messages on a website. In one of the messages, the Islamic Brigade, a militia within the IIP, had warned him about returning to Iraq.
8.  On 17 March 2009 the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) rejected the application. The Board did not question that the applicant was a Christian and had worked for the university committee, but did not find it likely that his work had made him a suspect of cooperating with Americans. Furthermore, as he had quit his job three years earlier, there was nothing to indicate a remaining work-related threat. Also, the applicant had failed to make plausible that his accusation against a former colleague had harmed that person or the IIP and it was thus unlikely that the applicant would be conceived of as a threat by that person. The Board further could not see any reasonable explanation for the alleged attack against the applicant’s parents, thereby questioning the credibility of this allegation. Finally, the Board noted that the security situation in Baghdad and in Iraq as a whole had improved.
9.  The applicant appealed, claiming a risk of persecution on the grounds that he is a Christian and an academic, and adding that members of the IIP had asked for him and had written threatening messages on the wall of his old house in December 2009. He also stated that he had reported to the police that he suspected high profile members of the Ministry of Education of being responsible for the kidnapping attempt of his daughter.
10.  On 9 June 2010 the Migration Court (Migrationsdomstolen) upheld the decision of the Board. The court held that the incidents referred to by the applicant did not constitute persecution on religious grounds. Further, it found the applicant to have had exaggerated his story by adding that he had reported to the police his suspicions concerning the perpetrators of the kidnapping attempt of his daughter. The court also pointed out that the applicant’s work for the university committee was of a limited scope and that a long time had passed since it had ended. In the absence of any political activity on the part of the applicant, it was not likely that his letter to the Ministry of Education would cause a threat of such scope as alleged by him. In sum, there was no individual threat against the applicant.
11.  On 3 November 2010 the Migration Court of Appeal (Migrations-överdomstolen) refused the applicant leave to appeal.
12.  Subsequently, the applicant claimed that there were impediments to the enforcement of his deportation order. He mainly invoked the general situation for Christians in Baghdad and attacks that had allegedly occurred in November 2010 in the residential area where he had used to live.
13.  On 26 January 2011 the Migration Board decided not to reconsider the case, finding that no new circumstances justifying a reconsideration had been presented.